Ag Executive Perspective With Clare Doyle of Verdesian Life Sciences

N, P and K regularly represent critical numbers in a fertility program. But there’s often a fourth number that is equally important but not talked about nearly as much – that’s the plant’s efficiency using the nutrients delivered to its soil. Verdesian Life Sciences thinks a key to retailers’ future amid considerable change in the industry is evolving from product salespeople to true solutions and production systems salespeople. And understanding that fourth number is one way to do this. I spent an hour talking to Verdesian CEO, Clare Doyle, to learn why the company thinks nutrient management programs need to evolve, where data fits in the equation, what changes in the crop protection business mean for the fertilizer market, and much more.

How would you characterize 2026 for the agricultural markets and for ag retailers?

Doyle: Just like you’re hearing from everybody else, 2026 was a very challenging year. Growers are trying to manage their margins and cash flow as best they can. And when input prices are so high, including diesel prices as growers are bringing in their crops, everything costs more. On top of that, there are so many questions about where the market is headed and what’s happening from a political perspective.

I also think you have to look at the changes happening in the industry right now. The industry looks very different today compared to how it looked just this past January. I think those changes will create real pressure that hasn’t yet materialized throughout the channel.

But if I look back at 2026, the one thing that really stands out to me is the value of discipline throughout the channel, with everyone making sure they’re spending their dollars wisely. That means continually asking the question, “Okay, if I spend this dollar, what am I going to get in return?” There’s a real drive among growers and retailers to move beyond simply doing what they’ve done in the past and focus more closely on ROI.

Can you give a couple of examples of changes in the industry whose impact haven’t been felt yet?

Doyle: Let’s talk about the Corteva split. What’s the true impact going to be on other crop protection companies, seed companies and retailers? And then there’s the patent cliff that everyone’s talking about. What’s the impact of these products coming off patent on retailers’ margins and cash flow over the next couple of years, and how does that change their businesses?
If you’re suddenly selling the same products at a lower price, you’re potentially earning fewer dollars from those sales. And if you haven’t adjusted your cost structure to account for those lower margins, it creates much greater stress across the entire industry.

This idea that we’re facing significant changes whose full impact we’ve yet to see is one of the things that keeps me up at night.

It’s interesting that the first two concerns you highlighted pertain to the crop protection market, but Verdesian doesn’t play in that space.

Doyle: Those aren’t necessarily our areas of focus, but we’re all part of the same industry. These crop protection companies are our customers, and the retailers selling their products are our customers, too. And if you put stress on one part of the industry, everybody feels it.

You don’t want to be a prisoner of the moment, but this feels like a period of greater-than-normal change in the industry. Do you agree?

Doyle: It does feel like it’s at a different level. We all want certainty, and we need to be thinking not just about what we’re going to do over the next two months, but what we’re going to do over the next two, three, four or even five years.

And in this environment, with so many different changes taking place, I think there are more challenges ahead for distribution and retail than the industry is fully prepared for.

Let’s talk about fertilizer and, more broadly, crop nutrition because that’s what Verdesian is about. What opportunities do you see for retailers to manage this portion of their business more efficiently?

Doyle: When you think about the investment that retailers make in NPK, the biggest opportunity is to move away from simply thinking about pounds applied and instead have a conversation with growers about how effectively those pounds are being used. When you make such a significant investment in fertilizer, you want to make sure you’re getting as much value from it as possible. That’s really what nutrient use efficiency is all about.

When nitrogen is as expensive as it is today, and you lose some of it or it becomes bound up in the soil, that nitrogen becomes even more costly. That’s where we’re focused on helping retailers have those ROI conversations with their growers so they understand the value of a nutrient use efficiency product.

When your NPK goes out, when your crop protection chemicals go out, that’s when Verdesian products go out. We’re not selling fertilizer. The whole purpose of nutrient use efficiency is to make sure that the fertilizer a grower applies actually gets to the plant. That’s the whole point. And that’s where retailers are so important. They’re the ones who build the fertility programs around which growers can calculate the ROI of nutrient use efficiency products.

I think growers understand the importance of the ROI conversation, but getting there can be a challenge. Those conversations need to happen regularly with their retailers because retailers understand their customers’ soil, crop rotation plans, geography, operating practices and all the other factors that go into calculating ROI.

You’re talking about crop nutrition at a level beyond NPK, so how significant of a shift is this for the retailers?

Doyle: I do think we’re talking about a dramatic shift. This requires a different approach than what a lot of retailers are accustomed to, and it’s a much more nuanced sale than selling NPK, crop protection products or biologicals.

Selling nutrient use efficiency products isn’t what I’d call a clean-and-easy sale. You really have to get into the gray areas and understand the nuances. And you’ve got to be crisp and clear with your messaging, which ultimately comes down to one question: What problem are you solving?

Does the patent cliff and the commoditization of a historically non-commoditized business in crop protection create opportunity for a company like Verdesian to come in and say to retailers, “You’ve lost an opportunity to differentiate yourself on crop protection, so you need new opportunities to differentiate. Here we are and we think we have a good opportunity for you.”

Doyle: That’s exactly right. The solution is going to be very specific to the retailer, their growers, the crop, the environment and so forth. But I think that’s where Verdesian comes in, allowing the retailer to differentiate and deliver a customized solution based on what their individual growers need.

Again, it all has to come back to: What’s the problem we’re solving? And how are we part of the solution? That’s the key for us and for the retailer.

And that’s important to note — like any product, nutrient use efficiency isn’t a promise. We’re not saying, “I promise this will happen.” But we can show growers data from studies conducted year after year. In this market, I think it’s especially important to move away from promises about what might happen and focus on the actual data.

That’s the most compelling piece, and it’s how we can best serve retailers and growers: showing them the data relevant to their region, their crop and their soil, and connecting that data to a measurable return on investment.

What are the key drivers to Verdesian’s business from a crop perspective and from a product perspective?

Doyle: Our strongest markets are in the Midwest, particularly corn and soybeans, which are the biggest part of our business. At the same time, we’re also active in the specialty crop markets, so the West and Southeast are important for us as well. That includes peanuts, corn and cotton in the Southeast and tree nuts out West. Potatoes are also looking better this year.

Our portfolio is incredibly broad. It includes everything from fertilizer enhancers, such as nitrogen stabilizers and phosphorus enhancers, to micronutrients, seed-applied biologicals and stress mitigators. And that portfolio extends across a wide range of crops, so we don’t have products that are just for corn or just for soybeans. Our technologies have broad applications across many different crops.

Let’s talk about nutrient use efficiency. Ultimately, Verdesian is selling that concept, which means you have to educate growers and retailers on the idea of nutrient use efficiency before you can ever sell them a product. So, what is the understanding level of nutrient use efficiency among growers and among retailers?

Doyle: The underlying concept is intuitive to most growers and retailers. Nutrients get tied up, they get lost or otherwise become unavailable. Everybody understands that. Even if they don’t use the phrase “nutrient use efficiency,” I think they understand the concept because they know that putting a nutrient into the soil doesn’t necessarily mean it’s available to the plant.
What we’re trying to do is make sure nutrient use efficiency is well understood and actionable. Once you understand the data, can you take action on it? And that’s really what nutrient use efficiency comes down to: How much value are you getting from the nutrients you’ve just paid for? Growers understand that.

Now, where it’s evolving, I think, is that people still tend to view nutrient use efficiency as a category of products. We want to get to the point where it’s understood as an overall management strategy, not simply a product category. It’s part of your fertilizer management and your approach to soil health. It’s part of precision agriculture. And it becomes part of the data you use to run your business.

So, as growers become more sophisticated about measuring and collecting data on their farms, that’s where nutrient use efficiency becomes more relevant and more a part of the everyday conversation.

Looking through your website and your marketing materials, it sounds like Verdesian is trying to brand or own the term nutrient use efficiency, but this is clearly a concept any company could sell into. Like you said, farmers and retailers have understood nutrient loss for a long time, but now someone comes in and says, “Hey, we’re going to give it a name and we’re going to educate you on this name and bring science alongside.” How long has that been taking place?

Doyle: Verdesian has been at this for the last 12 to 15 years, and our business was built around this concept. It’s foundational for us. This is exactly what we do. It’s all about making sure that the nutrients a farmer applies are available to the plant.

Given the farmers’ challenges in the market and the pricing of NPK, how do you sell them on making an additional investment with your products?

Doyle: You’re absolutely right. Asking a grower to spend another dollar requires something that’s really compelling, and you can’t just say, “Here’s another product to try.” We can’t be pushing a product. We have to be solving a problem. We have to be saying, “Here’s how this solution fits your approach, your strategy with your farmers, and here’s the value it delivers.” Because if you don’t tie it back to that value, then you’re pushing products, not solving problems.

So that’s where, again, starting with the science and the data becomes incredibly important. Whether it’s lab data, greenhouse data or real field data, that’s what we have to go to market with, and that’s what we have to equip retailers with so they can have those conversations with their growers.

And that conversation always has to come back to ROI. It can’t just be about yield. Yield alone means, “Hey, you do this, you get four more bushels per acre.” But what do I have to spend to get those four additional bushels? And does it actually make economic sense? That’s where we have to constantly bring the conversation back to ROI, both for the grower and the retailer. Right now, when margins are really tight, every single product has to earn its place in the program.

What do biological advancements look like in crop nutrition at this point?

Doyle: We have biological technologies that we can combine with conventional products. So, think about a fertilizer enhancer with a biostimulant added to it, or a micronutrient combined with a biostimulant. Basically, we’re taking well-established products and adding a biostimulant or biological component to create the next generation of products.

Very broadly speaking, I think biologicals will become part of the broader product portfolio rather than residing in a separate category. They’ll become integrated.

Where do you feel like the retail market is in terms of its understanding and acceptance of biologicals?

Doyle: There’s still a lot of opportunity ahead of us. I don’t think we’re there yet. I think there’s been a lot of concern based on past experiences, and overcoming those concerns remains a challenge.

You’re referring to the proverbial “snake oil products” of the past?

Doyle: Yeah, that’s right. Overcoming what we might call a false start is something the entire industry is still working through, largely because of promises that haven’t been fulfilled.

Is there a future for Verdesian in the core NPK world?

Doyle: No, but I think we already bring value to the NPK market. We have demonstrated technologies that can transform conventional products into more differentiated offerings. Whether our products are incorporated by a retailer or a fertilizer manufacturer to create a more advanced nutrient management system, it’s ultimately about delivering ROI to the grower.

Okay, look into the crystal ball for us a little bit then. What changes do you expect to see in terms of how growers manage crop nutrition in five to 10 years?

Doyle: Nutrient use efficiency will become part of what you do as a grower or retailer. I don’t see the same hard lines between crop nutrition and crop protection going forward.
And then we go back to the data piece. There’s so much information available, whether it’s soil data, tissue data or weather data. Making sure that data gets translated into action is going to require greater integration of technologies and a more comprehensive, systems-based approach to crop planning and management.

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“Executive Perspectives” is an editorial series in which we visit with leaders from across the industry to learn the challenges they see facing growers from their respective part of the business and their recommendations to help retailers succeed. This interview has been edited for style, length, and clarity.